WNG

With the depth and breathe of experience in the C & V forum, (and the friendly attitude) I thought I'd ask here for advice on possibly salvaging a vintage wheel.

Details:
Wheelset is late 80s Shimano 600 Uniglide 12x21 7spd freehub and matching front hub (both in great shape).
Rims are Wolber 700C GTX w/ eyelets (typical worn anodizing from the brake surface)
Spokes are SS.

I just picked these up from a local seller for $20. He indicated the rear rim has a 'flat spot' a few inches from the seam weld area. I checked the rim and could not find any obvious impact damage in that area, the walls of the rim are straight. But there is a noticeable dip.
First thing I did was tried to loosen the tension in that area to see if the flat spot could be forced 'out'.
From eyeballing it initially, I think the flat spot has become a bump. I will try to confirm but I don't have a truing stand handy.

I would like to try to save this rim. Has anyone ran into a similar condition? Can it be fixed by loosening the spokes and retruing and dishing the wheel? Or is this a waste of time because the rim is unsalvageable?

Thanks!

bigbossman 

In my case, I had an otherwise nice eyeleted Mavic MA2 that had a small hop. As I tried to adjust it out, I noticed the very small stress fractures coming off the holes that I had to really examine the wheel to see.

Check very carefully for small cracks or "pulling" around the spoke holes - they may be hard to see, but if they exist that rim is done.

iab

The tool to use is called a rim puller but it should be called a rim pusher.

https://www.biketoolsetc.com/index.cg...item_id=CU-014

Or you could make the same thing with a threaded rod, washers, nuts and a couple of wood blocks. You use it when the spokes are untensioned.

cyclotoine

Cool tool! If the dip is minor you may adjust the tension a little to see if that help, but you need a truing stand to do radial truing or you'll just get frustrated. Of course you could de-tension the whole wheel and make a rim pusher thing.

WNG

Very interesting idea for a tool!
I wonder how much stress it'll put on the hub though.
I have some threaded rod...I'll see if I can use it to fab something similar.
Meantime, I've relieved the tension in that spot. And will do so with the rest of the spokes and try retruing it. Need to bug my buddy to use his Park again.

Thanks for the heads up BigBossMan. I inspected the rim under bright light and found no fractures.


UPDATE:
I mounted the wheel into a frame to get a better idea of the rim...it's definitely now a 'bump' (outward). Time to disassemble the wheel, clean it and hope I can restore it.